Claiming His Secret Heir

“I wanted to see you face-to-face, for myself. To come to this house and see how it felt. What else I might remember.” She closed the space between them, leaning against the kitchen island where he still stood. “Maybe that was reckless of me. I’m doing the best I can with the unimaginable things that have happened to me. Who could possibly prepare for what I’ve been through?”

“We need to talk to the cops. Now.” He charged toward the door leading to the three-bay garage.

“Damon, wait.” She needed to tell him about Lucas before things went any further and they got law enforcement involved. “There’s something else you need to know first.”

He stopped. Turned. “Whatever it is, the police will surely want to hear it.” He picked up his set of keys from a rack of hooks near the door. “I think you’ll be telling the whole story a few times today. The trail for those bastards who took you has long gone cold, but the sooner we can get law enforcement after them—”

“Damon.” She followed him, pausing just inches from him. “Please. This is important.” She took the keys from his hand. Set them on the bare desktop of a built-in workstation near a wall of cookbooks. “There’s another reason it took me so long to get back to you.”

“And we can sort through all of it after you give your statement to the police.”

There was no way to put this but to simply say it. So she did.

“I was pregnant when they kidnapped me.” She had wondered more than once what his reaction would have been like if she’d gotten to tell him the news months ago.

For a moment, he was utterly expressionless. “Pregnant?”

“Yes. I—”

“But you said you were drugged. Didn’t those bastards know you were pregnant?” A dangerous light entered his eyes. His nostrils flared.

“I didn’t even know at first.” She blinked fast. Took a deep breath. “But he’s fine, Damon. I had our son—a perfectly healthy baby boy—six weeks ago.”

CHAPTER FIVE

The news staggered him.

Damon stared at Caroline, uncomprehending. They had a son. And she’d been lying to him on every level imaginable. The sting of betrayal tainted what should have been the happiest news of his life.

He had a son. But the woman he’d loved hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him. She’d gone to her lying, conniving father rather than turning to her husband.

“Damon?” Caroline’s voice was tentative.

He realized he’d backed up a step. That he’d somehow dropped onto one of the leather bar stools at the kitchen island while the baby bombshell tore away any hope he’d had that he could salvage the love he’d once had for his wife.

“Where is he now? Our son?” The word tripped awkwardly off his tongue.

“Safe. Victoria helped me and Lucas leave my father’s house.” She blinked rapidly, no doubt hearing the edge in his voice. “I rented them a small house nearby. I made sure it had a security system. We paid cash and she has the doors locked in case my father tries to have us followed.”

Damon felt his fury rising. He would decimate Stephan Degraff’s business interests. Ruin him financially. And that was just for starters. He would follow Gabe’s advice and make peace with the rest of the McNeills—his grandfather and half brothers—to leverage their business influence if that’s what it took to bankrupt Caroline’s father.

But first, he needed to prevent himself from falling down the emotional rabbit hole after this latest betrayal from his wife. He had a son to think about.

“We must have conceived during the honeymoon. I didn’t know I was pregnant for the first two weeks that I was a captive.” She licked her lips, speaking quickly as she straightened a white cup hanging from one of the wooden hooks over the coffee bar. “I didn’t have a pregnancy test to confirm it, so it was only a guess for a few weeks, but once I started having morning sickness, I knew for sure.”

His brain reminded him he had a role to play here. He was a father now. Protector to a vulnerable child and a wife who could still be the target of a kidnapper who hadn’t been caught. He would be a better father than his own worthless DNA contributor had been, so when push came to shove, he would do right by his child and Caroline, too. But it was damned hard to know the right words to say when he didn’t trust the mother of his baby.

“We’ll talk on the way to the police station.” He picked up the Land Rover keys again, determined to get a statement on file so the police could launch the investigation that should have started months ago. “We need to get the ball rolling to find the person responsible for your disappearance. Then, I want to meet my son, hire a security team, and ensure you are both protected 24/7.”